Sociomusicology: Keynote Speech in Estonia: The Power of Music to Unite and Divide

3/12/18

Keynote Speech in Estonia: The Power of Music to Unite and Divide

I look forward to giving a keynote speech for the national music education conference in Estonia in April, 2018. It is exciting to have this opportunity to visit such a beautiful country with incredibly rich musical traditions.

Below is a link to the conference website as well as the abstract for my speech. I am also posting here some photos I took during a visit to Estonia about one year ago.

Website: http://imuo.weebly.com/keynote-speakers.html

The Power of Music to Unite and Divide:
Rethinking its Potential Role in 21st Century Education

Music educators tend to believe that by teaching music they contribute to making the world a better place. Nevertheless, some policy-makers evidently assume that music, while a pleasant diversion, is of little consequence compared to technical and scientific pursuits. They note that many amateurs perform well without specialized musical knowledge, while some of the world’s highest paid musicians never formally studied music. Some even see music competitions as the ultimate arena for achievement, where participants are divided into winners and losers. The question of why music education matters is inseparable from why music itself matters, for which competition and economic arguments can seem a distraction. How this latter question is satisfactorily answered, I suggest, requires careful consideration of how music both unites and divides. It follows that I will discuss ways that particular forms of music are connected to such potent social categories as age, gender, socioeconomic status, nationality and ethnicity, as well as how various musical practices are addressed in the context of schools. In order for the importance of music to be more broadly appreciated, it seems music educators must strive to more convincingly demonstrate our evocative art’s unique power. From either a historical or global perspective, it becomes clear that music participation profoundly contributes to the cultivation of empathetic insights into diverse identities, while also strengthening community cohesion through appreciation of heritage and creative innovation. Having established this premise, I seek in this presentation to stimulate reflection on a critical question: How, as music teachers, might we best use music’s power to unite or divide?

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Welcome to Sociomusicology

For over 15 years (since 2007), this website has offered musings on contemporary society and its music by David G. Hebert, PhD. He is a sociomusicologist specializing in global music education who has held academic positions with universities on five continents. Dr. Hebert is now a tenured full Professor with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. There he leads the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group and manages the multinational government-funded Nordic Network for Music Education, which organizes annual intensive Master courses and exchange of teachers and students across eight countries. He is also an Affiliated Professor with University of the Faroe Islands and an Honorary Professor in China with the Education University of Hong Kong.

Professor Hebert's research applies an international-comparative perspective to issues of pluralism, identity, and cultural relevance in music education, as well as processes by which new music traditions emerge and change - both sonically and socially - as they are adopted into institutions. Born in the 1970s, he is among the most widely-published and globally-active music scholars of his generation (h-index:20; i10-index:30), with professional activities in an average of 8 countries per year across the past decade (2008-2020).